David Ely

The Princess Bride Reunion Scene

Listening toThe Incomparable podcast’s episode about The Princess Bride this morning, I made a mental note to look up the book’s Wikipedia page and read more about the strange literary hoax. My memory of the basics was basically correct: William Goldman wrote the book based on stories he told his daughters but claimed that the book was actually cut down from a larger work by “S. Morgenstern.” In reality there was no Morgenstern and no longer book. But I didn’t know about the “reunion scene.” From Wikipedia:

In the novel’s commentary, Goldman writes that he added
nothing to the “original” Morgenstern text, although he
comments that he did write one original scene, a loving
reunion between Buttercup and Westley, but claimed that his
publisher objected to this addition. He invited any reader
who wanted to read the “Reunion Scene” to write to the
publisher (formerly Harcourt Brace Jovanovich; now Random
House) and request a copy. Many readers wrote in to the
publisher and did receive a letter, but instead of an extra
scene, the letter detailed the (obviously fictitious) legal
problems that Goldman and his publishers encountered with
the Morgenstern estate and its lawyer, Kermit Shog. This
letter was revised and updated periodically; the 1987
revision mentioned the movie, while the 25ᵗʰ
Anniversary Edition publishes the letter with an addendum
about Kermit’s lawyer granddaughter Carly. The
30ᵗʰ Anniversary Edition has a footnote at this
point saying that you can now find the three pages of the
reunion scene online (www.PrincessBrideBook.com). However,
if one goes to the website detailed in the footnote, all
they receive via email is the text of the three letters.